Journey of writing my bachelor degree about first Polish translation of Blue Castle (Błękitny Zamek 1939). Also: a lot of rabbit-holing and brain-rotting 💙
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GUYS I DID IT 😭
I WROTE ABOUT 60 PAGES OF BA ABOUT BLUE CASTLE MY GOD
I'm tired and exhausted and I don't even know if my sentences there are making any sense – but it ✨exists✨
Now my promoter needs to read it, send me final touch amendments and if examine session will end good (i really hope so) I'm going to "defend" my thesis on 9th of July. Wish me luck guys.
I belive after that date I will be slowly translating my yapping to English for you but right now even while writing Wnglish abstract I needed support from Google Translate; my brain is so coocked rn.
#FUCK I DID IT#DID IT#I'm like 50k symbols over maximum limit I hope it will be OK#if not I will shoot myself lol#KAROL WHEN I CAUGHT YOU KAROL#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle book club#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#blue castle#tbc#the blue castle book club
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I know I'm a little *dead* here, but deadlines are bitches and I need today (☠️) send my whole BA thesis to my promotore. Wish me luck, I need to write 1/2 of 3rd chapter about Karol's stupid mistakes (dude CORRECTED letter from Doctor Trent so it says "Miss STIRLING" at the start of the book but "Miss STERLING" at the end ☠️).
Right now I'm also in my ✨Wicked era✨. The longer I think about that the more Valancy and Elphaba are similar. So here's a little old edit of mine for them and wish me luck to not go completly mad today 🙏💚💙
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Yesterday I made my little wish come true – right now I own every single one edition of The Blue Castle that was published in Poland after World War Two. Searching for them for so fun, because I'm a horrible skinflint LOL So in some cases I waited quite some time bor the best deal.
If you would be interested I could show you all of theme? With listed illustartors and translators? With prices, for my polish felow readers? Cuz after 3 years of collecting I know, when seller is looking for a fool xd
Now I can only wish that some day someone will try to sell polish first edition(s) from 1939 and my life will be complete <3
Bonus: I also own these four bad boys.
#i collect them as a sport#i love looking for good deals on vinted or olx#funny shit - the cheapest in my collection are editions from 1947 hehe#i don't have a problem i don't have a problem#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle book club#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#blue castle#book collection
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Czy wiesz kto ma prawa autorskie do tłumaczenia Karola Bobrzynowskiego/Borawskiego?
[ENG (will be soon) below]
Zapewne nikt ich nie posiada, ale w sumie to ciekawa sprawa.
No bo po raz pierwszy "Błękitny Zamek" wyszedł w 1939. Jest on tłumaczeniem, także prawa majątkowe wracają po pewnym czasie do tłumacza. Także według obecnie obowiązującej ustawy o prawie autorskim i prawach pokrewnych powinniśmy policzyć 70 lat od śmierci autora tłumaczenia i bum, mamy tekst w domenie publicznej.
Tylko informacji o Karolu B. mamy ujemne, o dacie narodzin i śmierci można pomarzyć xd Stąd też w sumie ciekawe, skąd Nasza Księgarnia w 1985 zdobyła prawa do wznowienia tego konkretnego przekładu a jednocześnie popełniła błąd przedrukowywany potem w wielu wydaniach, czyli wzmianka o tym, że pierwsze tłumaczenie pochodzi z 1926 roku.
W 2019 roku wydanie z 1947 roku zostało wrzucone do internetowej biblioteki Polona i jest opatrzony taką notatką dotyczącą praw autorskich:
Także obecnie z tym przekładem można chyba robić cokolwiek. Za tym przemawiałoby włączanie "Błękitnego Zamku" w gazetowe serie klasyków, które obecnie wydawane są jak najniższym kosztem. Jako przykład wydanie od Hachette z 2022 albo jako część "Cranford Collection" od Buksy Media Polska z 2024.
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I guess after Karol B. I should be prepared, that name in redaction note can be only pseudonym - but I was not. It seems that second Blue Castle translator was not named Joanna Kazimierczyk but Janina Sałajczykowa. And she was a professor! And she also founded the department of Russian studies on Gdańsk University, what a queen!
It seems she had this pseudonym purely to translate literature and under her real name she published her papers, studies, etc. I don't have time to dig more about that, but I leave this note to myself in the future to maybe delve into the topic.
She also translated Jane of Lantern Hill, The Golden Road and short-stories in 8 volumes that were published in Poland in Novus Orbis published house.
Cover of edition from Novus Orbis, 1993, translated by her.
[sources: https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/SRG/article/view/1801/1263; https://journals.pan.pl/Content/109998/PDF/Sl.Orient.%204-18%2015-L.Kalita.pdf]
#the more you know everyday#sadly not about Karol#he is still a big mystery#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek
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A little late (at least in my timezone) but: Happy International Women's Day!
Let's celebrate it with my little edit of Valancy :') She should be at the club!
[all clips are from adaptation of Theatre of Television in Poland from 1996]
#i really enjoy doing this silly edits in capcut#but watermark is killing me every time#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle book club#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#blue castle#tbc#valancy stirling#the blue castle book club#international women's day
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I've been scrolling through Polona (Polish online library with books, photos, drawings, etc.) and found some pictures that scratched my brain so nicely. Some look like entirely from Blue Castle :")
First I will post 10 drawing. Be prepared: a lot of beautiful women 😌

This is the look Valancy would gave Stirlings at silver wedding dinner <3
Pastel autorstwa Teodora Axentowicza przedstawiający portret kobiety siedzącej w fotelu (Pastel by Teodor Axentowicz showing a portrait of a woman sitting in an armchair)

Also, how above: what a cunty glance.
Kobieta siedząca na wiklinowym fotelu: fotografia obrazu Czesława Tańskiego (Woman sitting on a wicker chair]: [photograph of a painting by Czesław Tański)

She looks so whimsical!
Jaskółka = L'hirondelle (A swallow)

There is also a castle in the back!
Portret kobiety w jasnej bluzce: profil (Portrait of a woman in a light blouse: profile)

This is exactly how I would imagine Cecily Gay - such a kind, lovely girl <3
Wiosna = Frühling = Le printemps (A Spring)
Could it be also Cecily?
Zaczytana (Engrossed in reading)

Cuties
Z powinszowanie imienin (With best wishes for your name day)

You think Valancy would warm herself up after swimming lessons like that 👀?
Am Feuer (In the Fire)

Just so beautiful...
Patrycyuszka = Patricienne (Patrician)

The winter girl
PLUS: these two gives me such a vibe Anne from "Anne of Ingleside" <3!

Wesołego Alleluja! (Happy Hallelujah!)

Tęsknota (Loneliness)
#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#pictures#art#drawings#valancy stirling#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle#tbc#aogg#anne of ingleside#anne shirley#anne blythe
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I'm rereading The Blue Castle (again) to update my beautiful google sheet (about which I was posting here). It seems that I've been lenient the first time, because percentage of deleted words had increased from 24,1 to 24,6. And I'm only on chapter 15 x.x
But not about that now; I've also started secons sheet, in which I can compare English names etc. with its polish equivalent. And usually there is translated name + english surname. But not everytime. By now I saw three such cases, when also surname has been change. Sooo...
1. Edward Beck -> Rudolf Schulz
I could not make that up. It is so... weird. English "Beck" sounds simillar to Polish onomatopoeia "bek" meaning burp. But "Schulz" is not neutral choice, it has very strong connotations. We had very popular writer, Bruno Shulz, he was writing magical realism short-stories. But "Schulz" is also very German surname. It also means "mayor, judge" and I think it could be a reason why in TBC musical there is a whole number about "Mr. Councilman Schulz", whom is very rich and very influential lol.
Why exactly this name? Edwar Beck has a lot of children and money. Maybe it was based on stereotypes; even today in Poland we have this myth about welthy German people. But I am not sure that Germans had more children than Poles.
[On a side note, Rudolf is also a German name and means "wolf", so… Valancy was supposed to raise his little pack xd?]
2. Mr. Judd -> Pani Trundle
Still working on that one. She is the one, who from Dr Trent's housekeeper told Cousine Gladys, that probably Dr Trent will be out of Deerwod for some time, to take care of his son.
"Judd" has no meanig in Polish, but can be translated to "Żyd" ("Jew"). Remember, that translation is from 1939, we are at the edge of Second World War, there were some strong anti-Semitic movements back there. So maybe it was a reason, why he changed that?
BUT WHY TRUNDLE?! It's not a Polish surname. It's not known in Polish foreign surname. It's not even popular English surname! The only source I could find with that name was a character from The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens. Other than that: zero, null, nada. It doesn't even have a etymology in any reliable source, so I don't think so, that hidden meaning was a reason to name her this way and not the other. Maybe Karol B. was such a fan of Dickens, that he wanted to add an easter egg...
3. Rachel Edwards -> Rozalia Grzmot
The funny one at the end xD She was an es-housekeeper of Roaring Abel. And Karol gave her entirely Polish surname: "Grzmot". Which mean "thunderclap". Maybe because she was thrown out of work with a bang (breaking jars of jam). In Polish that wordplay also work, she could "wylecieć z hukiem" :")
And that is all for know, but there are 30 chapter in front of me, so maybe there also will be some crazy re-naming cases :D
[shot from The Blue Castle musical from Mazovian Musical Theatre, song "Mr. Councilman Schulz"; I can relate with Valancy, this souless eyes when I'm digging, digging and there is no end of that :p]
#the blue castle#blue castle book club#błękitnyzamek#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#blue castle#tbc#the blue castle book club
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Did you know that Polish edition of The Blue Castle was 3rd translation in the world? I also didn't, but I know now xd
First was Dutch🇳🇱: Valencia's droomslot, tr. A.E. [Betsy] de Vries, Tjeenk Willink, Haarlem 1927.
Second – Finish🇫🇮: Sininen linna, tr. A.J. Salonen, Karisto, Hameenlinna 1930.
POOOLAND🇵🇱: Błękitny Zamek, tr. Karol Bobrzynowski/ Borawski, J. Kubicki/ Księgarnia Literacka, Warsaw 1939*.
Japan🇯🇵: Aoi Shiro, tr. Yumiko Taniguchi, Shinozaki Shorin, Tokyo 1980.
I know that there are Hungarian, French, Persian etc. versions so... do you maybe know in what year they were translated for the first time? It's so interesting!
---
Source: Lucy Maud Montgomery: A Premilinary Bibliography, ed. R. W. Russell, D. W. Russell, R. Wilmshurst, University of Waterloo Library, Waterloo 1986, s. 43-45. *In this source there is written that 1st Polish edition is from 1926, but it is an error repeated since the 1985 edition, we didn't have in the year of premiere 😭
#i'm such a bibliographic mole#i love good archived data#błękitnyzamek#the blue castle#blue castle book club#l. m. montgomery#the blue castle book club#lm montgomery#blue castle
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I know Valancy isn't very much foud of singing BUT... ✨imagine✨
This cover is sooo nice. Plus:
So put on your best, boys, and I'll wear my pearls
What I never did is done
Do you see the vision here??? 💙
youtube
#another day without adaptation of blue castle#what a waste#if anyone is interested my ba is slowly appering#very slowly but is#i hope i will have some new content soon#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle book club
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Mystery solved 🔓✨
The issue that I talked about here and here I declared solved 😎
I contacted L.M. Montgomery Literary Society (and Bala's Museum but LMMLS was faster to reply) and I received photos of US, AUS, and UK editions from 1926-1935 (first Polish translation is from 1939).
There is change in US 1926 from "Wansbarra" to "Barraclough".
BUT in Australian (1928) and British (1935) there is none, there is also "Barraclough"! Which can mean, that there was indeed some kind of error betweet Canadian publisher and publishers from other English speaking countries around the world. And this error was repeated in the Polish version.
What leaves me satisfied, because it makes sense: Poland is a hundred times closer to Great Britain than to Canada, so the UK version was base of translation.
However if it wasn't the true: I would be pretty cooked, because I had no other ideas from what he could be translating. But it all comes down to this solution, so I can safely accept it as a fact 💃
^^Photo from Harrap edition, UK April 1935; that was send to me by Mary Beth Cavert from LMMLS <33^^
#what sherlock holmes move#glad that I got clear conclusion#apart from the name issue the British edition seems identical to the Canadian one in the matter of text#which means that aaall of cut off are entirely Karol's doing#and i can complain about it with a light heart#what a day#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle book club#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#blue castle#tbc#the blue castle book club
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Continuation of this post about changing surname of Valancy's maternal grandfather from Barraclough to Wansbarra and again.
So I did some digging – and it still ain't adding up.
In that Scotish that paper I wrote about earlier, there are some deleted paragraphs. A lot even I would say. But these are not the same fragments, that are cut off from Polish translation, which leaves me with conclusion, that Karol had access to some undefined 3rd source of material. He translated not from the OG printed edition (cuz surnames aren't the same) but also not form the Scotish reprint (because he translated excerpts non-existent there). And I have no clue what could it be.
So I am left with questions like:
From WHERE or WHO Dundee Courier had access to unedited script of Blue Castle? Six months before publication of Blue Castle Montgomery became friends with prestigious Barraclough family in Norval, Ontario and that was the cause of change, to not name their name some crazy grandpa in her novel. What shenanigans were played that it wasn't changed.
What Karol was translating? Did this 24% of cut off content from Blue Castle was his doing or maybe he just received shortened version and translated what he got?
Continuation of question above: What translations of Blue Castle was made between 1926 and 1939? Because in Poland we have case of 1st translation of Anne of Green Fables - it was in for the most part from Swedish not English; is similar scenario possible in this situation?
Are there more reprints with this kind of changes from the original edition/original manuscript?
Am I insane?
For the last one I can say: maybe, but I'm good with it xd <3
On the other hand: look at this cute drawing of Valancy! It's from Dundee Courier, 10 March, 1927.
#I need to know this answers#i neeed to fiiind myyyy waaaay#i should get my BA in a minute I finally figure this out#i feel so genius and stupid in the same time#the blue castle#blue castle book club#błękitnyzamek#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery
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Polish translator was wrong but it wasn't his fault?!
AKA: First translation wasn't based on actual published version BUT on Scottish press reprint?
I'm trying to write my BA thesis (it's going really slow but I'm cooking it) and I wanted to write subsection about Valancy's name, which in 1st Polish edition, is Joanna not Valancy. About this fragment exactly:
As you can see – there is a lot of deleted content. But let's look on the name of Valancy's maternal grandfather: Amos Wansbarra. In Polish version: Amos Barraclud. Which, if I can say that, is totally unreasonable change.
I was also interested how this paragraph looks in manuspript. How changing name of heroine from Miranda (because that was OG name) to Valancy affected that part. And I was really shocked when I read that:
Look at Note G1 and annotation 3. Originaly name of Valancy's maternal family was Barraclough. Very similar to Barraclud. And there is THE question I am asking:
How does Karol knew what was in the manuscript?!
This book shipment took a month to get to me from Canada to Poland in XXI century but suddenly Karola Borawski/Bobrzynowski had access to original text in 1939 at hand? No, something is not adding up.
So i started digging: (and oh Lord I like it and I am good at it)
Blue Castle was reprinted in press after book publication. In Scotish Dundee Courier (March 10 – April 13, 1927) and Canadian Countryman (August 27, 1927 – January 14, 1928). In the second one we have Amos Wansbarra so i guess cased closed. BUT IN THE DUNDEE COURIER THERE IS ORIGINAL SURNAME.
I don't think that they changed it from Barraclough to Barraolouirh; I can theorize that machine just malfunctioned and scanned letters wrong.
But it leaves me with conclusion: that first Polish translator didn't have access to published, final version of the book. So maybe, only maybe, that all deleted content – that wasn't his fault. Maybe it was Scotts all along xD Maybe THEY cut it short to match press format and Karol wasn't aware, that there were some drastic cuts.
I would really like to check that! But I can't! Because I'm not British 😭 My university doesn't subscribe to site containing this paper. I don't have £14.99 right now to spare to pay myself and it's not on internet archive either. So I don't know what I will do with it by now, but I will try to get to it in some way. Free way.
[if there is person, whose university is giving access to British Newspaper Archive... you would be the sweetest and kindest creature on this planet, if you would like to share with me 👉👈]
So, to sum it up:
the translation is wrong (?) but this time it isn't Karol's fault 😳
and it's kinda refreshing
LOL
#i'm still shocked#it was suppose to be a easy paragraph to write and look at me now#I think it is a scheme of some kind at this point#first translation of AoGG was from Swedish no English#so I think translators from that period didn't like to use original sources as a base of their translations xd#and how tf am i suppose to sum it up in my BA now#the blue castle#blue castle book club#błękitnyzamek#l. m. montgomery#lm montgomery#blue castle#tbc
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>#do I need to add a photoshopped picture of LMM wearing a pope hat to the end of my posts??
don't you worry: i got your back
one of these days I will make LM Montgomery trend on tumblr...i'm nothing but a two bit blog with ten fingers and a dream, but by golly, someone's gotta do it!!
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I just received my copy of The Blue Castle: The Original Manuscript and it's so pretty!

It even has a ✨MAP✨

It will be a big help while writing my BA thesis 💙💃
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When I was preparing my own reading summary of 2024 I was reminded of some awfull book - The Ladies of Missalonghi. Which is also known (and that's how I found out about it) as a plagiarised version of Blue Castle. I began reading that thinking, that it can't be that bad. Oh my lord, it was worse.
I don't usually write reviews on Goodreads, let alone analyzes, but that time I needed to let off some steam. So, I think now, it will be funny to translate and reshare it here for the blue castle book club.
Be prepared for a looot of piffle. Please, don't read it book yourself if you value your dear brain cells.
In a nutshell: The Blue Castle but in Australia, except that the main character is calculating goose, the clan is cartoon villains and the entire plot consists of a series of predictable plot twists and one that comes completely out of nowhere.
Our main heroine is Missalonghi Wright, a nearly 34-year-old spinster nicknamed "Missy" by her entire family (similar to Valancy "Doss" Stirling, a 29-year-old spinster, hmm…), who lives with her mother and her sister (much like Valancy with her mother and her sister-in-law!) in some completely out-of-town (hmmm) in an ugly, poorly heated house (HMM). She only wears brown and unfashionable dresses (HMMM). Missy is part of the Hurlingford clan, occupying the position of the weird and ugly spinster (HMMMM) due to the fact that she is one of only two people in the family (we'll get to that in a moment) with brown hair. No, I'm not mistaken, this whole mutual admiration circle is blonde, thanks to two great things: choosing blonde partners outside the family + inbreeding. Because it's so cool and okay, yaay!
The apple of the eye of the whole family is Alice, a beautiful, charming young lady, whose brown hair is probably not such a big deal, who mourned for a long time after her first fiancé died in tragic circumstances, but has already recovered from this ""tragedy"" and is about to marry her new admirer (does it sound like Olivia Stirling? It does, but unfortunately for us, the similarities will end soon, because it will only get worse). Alice's chosen one is her 22-year-old cousin Billy, the son of the main patriarch of the family. Oh, did I mention that Alice is also 34? And did she set her sights on Billy as her future husband when he was still a teenager? No? So I'm saying it now.
At the beginning of the book, John Smith comes to the town of Byron, whom everyone says is a troublemaker, a rable-rouser, and a killer (Barney Snaith, are you with us, HMMMM??). It turns out that he has purchased a valley on the border of Byron, which, conveniently for the plot, happens to be close to Missy's house. Why did he buy this plot of land? Because he liked it and he always wanted to own the valley (Is Barney I-Always-Wanted-to-Own-Island Snaith with us???). Whatsoever, by doing this, he ruins his relations with all the residents of Byron, because it turns out that only members of that cursed clan live there.
The Cursed Clan is rich because of the bottle factory where they later sell water, supposedly the tastiest in the entire universe. There's just one problem with this factory, or rather its management - someone is buying up the shares, some mysterious investor arranging share after share and increasing the percentage of the shares he owns more and more. I WONDER WHO IT COULD BE? The plot of this factory is probably the only original thing in the whole story, except that because of it we have a scene of a meeting of villains like from a bad cartoon:
"We have to get the share papers from our aunts, they don't know what they are anyway, they'll sell them us for next to nothing and we'll be able to continue cheating them out of money."
"Ask them nicely, they'll give them to you for free, after all, women are stupid."
"Oh yes, women are stupid."
"Women are stupid."
"Hahaha."
"Hahaha."
...good Lord. And in the meantime, the main character is standing behind a fern and eavesdropping on the whole vile plan. Divinely.
So we have a screwed main character, we have a screwed love interest, the rest of the family is a caricature of a caricature (in The Blue Castle the clan, maybe hermetic, but sticks together, and here everyone is scratching their own turnip and that's ok, you can rub your hands at the thought of a few pennies gained by buying eggs below market price from an aunt who is starving, but the Hurlingfords don't trade with strangers; I would wring all their heads). We also have the character of Una, who allows us to move on to the next character trait of the main character borrowed from Montgomery - a love of books.
Valancy read nature books because her mother forbade her from reaching for anything else. Here, too, the mother imposes such a ban on Missy, but already at the beginning of the book she states that, after all, it doesn't matter to her, that her daughter is an adult and she sees that she's messing around with these romance novels, so let the girl have something for life. These romances (during the novel two descriptions of such books are quoted and boy oh boy, it was something between harlequins and trendy now new adult books) are taken care of by Una, who, attention: is a ghost. She is a freaking ghost. Which the reader learns about in the last three pages AND OH MY GOD HOW MUCH THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. SHE SELLS BOOKS. WORKS IN A LENDING STORE. GIVES MISSY A DRESS. NOTARIALLY CERTIFIES THE TRANSFER OF THE SHARES. HOW. All these events take place, they are not Missy's hallucinations, because everyone else saw the gifted dress, the documents were passed, it's such a shitty plot twist. So senseless. Ughh.
Just to make sure there are enough similarities, the main character ""has"" a heart condition. And if the plot twist with Una was absolutely stupid, this plot, damn it, this plot - I have no words for it. So the whole thing looks like this: Missy at some point gets chest pains. John Smith sees one such attack, picks her up in his arms, brings her to her house - because she fainted beetween entries to her own and his property - he brings a doctor. In the meantime, Missy, who sees the man for the second time - falls in love with him. Madly. To be held by those arms, to die in those arms, to kiss those arms, she would very much like all of it at once.
The doctor comes, says he can't see anything, asks her to come back for a consultation in a week. The other one comes, he still doesn't see anything, says: You'll go to Sydney, my specialist friend is there, he'll do something. Okay, she's going in two weeks. The other other doctor examines her, writes something down, then, by surprise, nurse catches her and twists her spine. Without warning, just for funsies. It turns out that she had a pinched nerve, now everything should be ok. He says that he'll send the letter he wrote to the doctor from Byron and that Missy should show up in a week for another check-up. Suddenly the phone rings, everyone leaves, Missy is left alone in the office and is super sad. Because how can that be? She already thought she was dying, but she wasn't, she won't be like the heroine of the romance she read recently, who died young, but had loved before (in general, at the beginning of the book she would do anything just to not be sick, but never mind). Instead of keeping her hands to herself, she starts reading what the Sydney doctor wrote about her. She finds a letter from her family doctor and, wait, I won't let this quote go, the doctor to the doctor in his review of the patient writes: She leads a stagnant, deprived existence (vide her breast development).
YIKES, EXECUSE ME? In general, throughout the entire length of the book, descriptions of physicality, erotic scenes, mentioning caresses or molestation as "hehe, what he touched was his" - I was thinking that I will throw up every d-- time. Coming back: she reads the next documents and finds an opinion about another patient, a heart patient who has 6 months, well, a year left to live. And this stupid goose takes this paper and puts it in her purse! Why does she need it, you may ask? So Missy has a plan, a brilliantly clever one. She goes to John. Something between 4 and 9 miles, so quite a long way from the threshold of her house to the threshold of his house, he has quite a lot of land around there. But she goes. With a suitcase. She left her mother a note earlier: Mommy, don't worry, everything will be great, I'll be back in two days, kisses xoxo. And here the mother doesn't abuse her daughter like Mrs. Friderick abused Valancy, I can even say that she was kind of a pleasant character.
But that's not important! Missy goes. She comes. She sits down. She waits for John to come back from the field. John comes back and she says to him as a greeting: Will you marry me? Let me remind you: they've seen each other twice before. TWO. Once Missy didn't say anything and the second time she was unconscious. John says that he was already married, he's 50, now he wants to be alone for a while, in the middle of nowhere, have some peace. What does Missy do? SHE TELLS HIM THAT IN A YEAR SHE'LL DIE, SHE LOVES HIM, SHE WANTS TO LIVE WITH HIM IN THE VALLEY, HER VALLEY, SHE WILL TEACH HIM HOW TO LOVE AGAIN. He says that she looks quite healthy, he doesn't want anything from her, he takes her home. What does Missy say to that? She goes to him the next morning and repeats the play. And he agrees. And they have sex. A lot of sex. Because Missy turns out to be some kind of goddess, despite obviously also being a virgin. Holy ravioli.
SO THEY GET MARRIED. And John says a few times how he's starting to trust our Missy, because women are liars, but she, she is in a different league. Meanwhile, after each of such a remark, she thinks that if she waits a year to reveal the truth, nothing will happen. That maybe they'll have children by then. Because she wants children. And John would actually make a good father.
The carousel of stupidity is turning, but it's not slowing down, it's only speeding up, we're getting closer to the end, stay with me. So the mysterious buyer of the shares turns out to be (!!!) John. And he, as it turns out, was also married to a Hurlingford woman in his first marriage. Only she was a bad woman, but he didn't kill her, she drowned herself, but the whole clan accused him of murdering her, so he decided that he would destroy them all later. Of course, now excluding the people Missy likes. Because he had such a trick with this factory that he now wants to have a 100% female board. So he's enlisting his mother-in-law and her three sisters, and they have to get four other people to make a full board. A board composed entirely of widows who sold at most a heifer to their cousins at discounted prices. I love this business plan.
But wait, if John's first wife was also from this family… who was she? UNA. UNA FROM THE ROMANCE RENTAL. Una, who really wanted Missy and John to get together. Who gave her a dress for the wedding. And now, because the book ends with Missy and Una talking, when Una finally realizes that she's been talking to a ghost all this time, Una now just wants to fly to heaven and chill out. BUT! She has one last warning for Missy.
“Don’t ever tell him, Missy. Let him believe his love and care cured you.” Una chuckled gleefully. “He’s a darling man, darling, but he has a terrible temper! It’s not in your nature to provoke it, but whatever you do, don’t tempt fate by telling him about your heart trouble. No man likes to be the dupe of a woman, and he’s already had a fair taste of that. So mark what I say – don’t ever, ever tell him.”
“You’re leaving,” said Missy desolately.
“With knobs on I’m leaving, darling! I’ve done what I was sent to do, and now I’m going to take a well-deserved rest on the softest, fattest, pinkest, champagniest cloud I can find.”
“I can’t do it without you, Una!”
“Nonsense, darling, of course you can. Just be good, and especially be good in bed, and you can’t go wrong. That is, as long as you heed my warning – don’t ever tell him the truth!”
I am-- I am speechless. THIS DAMN PARODY OF A BOOK--
#my braincells was dying horrific death while reading#it is not a good book#by any means#read ONLY if you are prepared for intense hate-reading#to think that someone published this#i still can't remember spelling of the title#i copy and paste it every time#oh my lord what a crap#The Ladies of Missalonghi#Colleen McCullough#the blue castle#błękitnyzamek#blue castle book club#l. m. montgomery
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It was rare
I was there
I remember it
All to well~~

2nd time + with companions it was even more fun and magic to watch. Splendid work from all of actors, dancers, singers and more 💙
Two months until I will go to see musical "Blue Castle" in the theater again, I can't waittttt

I wasn't convinced about the Stirlings' costumes at first, but now – I really love that pink plaid!
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